NBC 7’s Amber Frias reports on the controversy surrounding the former contractor of the South Bay Expressway.
When talking about convenience, users of the Southbay Expressway have no complaints.
“Location is a factor for us,” said Andrea Vega, South Bay resident. “We live like a block away from it, so our closest freeway is the 125 toll road.”
“I think it has advantages depending on what direction you’re going," said Andre Ross, a South Bay resident.
Now, when talking about customer service and cost — that’s a different story.
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“There's a few times I had to call the customer service line and it was hard to get through,” said Jason Powers, South Bay resident.
Lawsuit against SANDAG
Late last year, a lawsuit was filed accusing the San Diego Association of Governments of incorrectly charging tens of thousands of State Route 125 drivers.
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Etan Tolling Technology will continue to be paid through transition
The suit was a hot topic at the most recent SANDAG board meeting where officials voted to hire Deloitte and A-to-Be to take over the job. Etan Tolling Technology, the company behind the failed toll collection system, will continue getting paid through the transition.
Etan has been paid $8.4 million and will collect an additional $1.3 million. HNTB, the outside consultant who was paid $4.3 million to manage Etan Tolling, will also continue getting paid.
What happened at the SANDAG meeting
“We are wasting taxpayer dollars and we’re not protecting our citizens and that's a problem for me,” said San Marcos Mayor Rebecca Jones during the meeting.
Jones wanted to stop paying the companies but Ray Major, SANDAG’s deputy CEO, opposed.
“As the vendor, we need them there through this transition, we also need them to be working with the new vendor to move the databases over, to be able to help us understand how they had things set up so that we can do the transition,” said Major.
Del Mar Deputy Mayor Terry Gaasterland asked the board to temporarily pause all tolls. But that idea was rejected too.
El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells requested an independent investigation into previous problems. That was approved.
The transition is expected to be completed by 2025.
Meanwhile, toll road users are left to wonder how the changes will impact them.
“I would be interested to see how that would roll out or how our accounts will switch or what that would entail,” said Vega.
